A Mile in Your Shoes
by Ember Quill
Summary: One of Drakken's inventions malfunctions spectacularly, causing Kim to once again switch bodies with someone else. This time, however, she wakes up after the inevitable explosion to find herself in a prison cell, wearing her arch-foe's pale green face.
1. Chapter 1

**_A/N:_**_ I know I've already got another story in progress, and that I really should be working on it. But I couldn't ignore this plot bunny any longer. So here you go. This story is the first part of what is currently planned to be a trilogy._

**_Timeline:_**_This story takes place during early season 3._

**_Disclaimer:_**_I do not own Kim Possible, or any characters/settings/etc. you recognize from the show. I make no profit from this, etc. You know the drill._

* * *

**_A Mile in Your Shoes_**

**_T-Minus 4: What the Future Holds_**

* * *

Kim Possible groaned quietly into her pillow as sleep continued to elude her. The past few weeks had been rough for her, and all she wanted was a nice, uninterrupted eight hours of sleep, but for some reason she was still wide awake at two in the morning.

It had all started with the moodulators, Kim mused. A couple of weeks ago, Doctor Drakken had once again stolen a dangerous invention from Doctor Cyrus Bortel and used it (by accident, of course, since Drakken's plans often went awry) to wreak havoc with Kim's mind. Experiencing such a massive range of emotions in barely a few hours had left Kim drained and irritable. The knowledge that Shego had experienced the same thing, and that she had probably taken revenge on Drakken afterwards, did cheer her up a bit, but not much.

Before she'd had a chance to recover, she had been literally attached to Bonnie for a hellish few days. If Kim hadn't been drained before, that experience had certainly drawn on the last of her reserves of energy. Dealing with Bonnie all day, every day was not even remotely enjoyable.

At least she hadn't been bound to Barkin, though. She couldn't even imagine how awkward that had been for Ron.

It seemed as if she and Ron couldn't catch a break, either. As soon as that nightmare was finally over, Ron had been an unfortunate victim of HenchCo's Attitudinator. Watching Ron gradually turn into an eccentric villain (and seeing the opposite happen to Drakken) was going to give her nightmares for weeks!

So it was really no surprise that Kim couldn't sleep. In fact, she would have considered it more surprising if she could sleep.

Luckily for her, she did finally fall asleep an hour later.

Barely a minute after she slipped into her dreams, there was a flash of blue light in the corner of her bedroom. Kim was so exhausted that she barely even stirred as the light illuminated her face before vanishing just as quickly, leaving behind a woman dressed in black from head to toe. Two olive-green eyes peered out of the darkness, gazing at the sleeping girl.

Kim had a tiny smile on her face as she slept soundly, completely ignorant of the stranger in her room. The woman grinned ruefully as she reached out, just barely stopping short of stroking the girl's hair.

"I remember when it was so easy," the woman murmured quietly. "When the whole world could be divided into good and evil, right and wrong, black and white. Now all I see are shades of gray."

She reached into a pocket in her pitch-black clothes and pulled out a small, metallic case. She slowly popped open the clasp that held it shut, making sure to minimize the noise so she wouldn't wake Kim up. She set the case down on the nightstand next to Kim's alarm clock, then reached out to the girl once again.

"Your life's gonna get a lot harder, kid," she told the sleeping girl as she slowly folded the covers back, revealing Kim's torso, clad in a simple, loose tank top. "The road is gonna get a lot rougher. Lines will start blurring…"

She opened the case on the nightstand and removed a small bottle of liquid and a cotton swab. She dripped a small amount of the liquid onto the swab, then used it to gently rub a spot on Kim's toned bicep. A moment later, she replaced the swab and the bottle, and removed a syringe.

"You've got a long journey ahead of you, Kim," the interloper continued as she carefully poked the needle into the same spot on Kim's arm, injecting a small amount of silvery fluid. "Hopefully, this will help you survive the troubles to come."

After placing the empty syringe back into its case and snapping it shut, the woman gave into temptation and stroked Kim's fiery red hair with her left hand for a moment before backing away.

"My past may be set in stone," the woman whispered, "but your future is still being written. I hope your ending is as happy as mine."

With another flash of blue light, she vanished.

Kim slept on, completely unaware that her destiny had just been changed forever…


	2. Chapter 1: The Catalyst

_**A/N: **And here's the REAL first chapter. That prologue was just a taste of things to come in this (at the moment still untitled) trilogy. And I'll be keeping the author's notes to a minimum from now on. The previous disclaimer applies to this chapter and all future chapters as well._

* * *

**_A Mile in Your Shoes_**

**_Chapter 1: The Catalyst_**

* * *

"Shego! Come quickly! I have a plan!"

Verdant green eyes opened slowly as a pale-skinned villainess gradually departed from the realm of dreams. With a long-suffering sigh, she pushed herself up on her elbows, letting green and black sheets slip down her nude form.

Shego did not enjoy waking up to the sound of her employer's ranting. She especially did not enjoy waking up to see the mad scientist standing in the open doorway of her _private_ bedroom. Her door was usually locked for precisely that reason, not that locking a door in one of Doctor Drakken's own lairs would keep him out for long.

Curiously, he hadn't said anything since waking her up. Rubbing her eyes blearily, she glanced up at his face, which was turning red for some reason as his jaw slowly descended towards the floor. Her eyes followed his gaze, to find that it was centered on her. More specifically, on her chest.

Her _bare_ chest.

Both of her hands ignited as she pulled them out from under the sheets. When Drakken failed to react, she placed her hands directly over her breasts, filling Drakken's sight with glowing green plasma.

"_Get. Out,_" she growled at him as the sight of her bright flaming hands finally snapped him out of his stupor. "Get out and close the damn door."

With a very loud shriek, he did exactly that.

"Is it too much to ask for him to knock?" Shego wondered to herself as she stepped out of bed and slipped into her trademark black and green catsuit, the last remnant of her old life as a superhero. Having worn the suit for so many years already, she gave no thought to its origins as she fastened it shut over her chest, then slipped on her gloves and boots. A belt and an ankle pouch completed the ensemble.

"Yeah, it probably is," she answered her own question while running a brush through her thigh-length black hair. With that done, she opened her door and stepped out of her bedroom to find Drakken cowering in a fetal position at the far end of the hallway.

"S-Shego," he stuttered. "Glad you're...uh...awake. I...um...I have a plan!" He stood up, quickly regaining his usual manic demeanor. "A brilliant plan! Nothing shall stand in my way this time! Not even Kim Possible!"

"And you need me to steal something," Shego deadpanned.

"Of course!" Drakken exclaimed. "And I know exactly where to find what I need."

"As long as it's not cocoa-moo," Shego muttered under her breath, "or Nacos."

Drakken had only recently been turned back to normal after the Attitudinator mishap. This would be his first new scheme since that disaster, and Shego was hoping it would be a good one. Whether it succeeded or not, she was looking forward to fighting Kim again, and was hoping they would fight over something even slightly more important than chocolate milk or fast-food junk.

"What was that?" the mad scientist asked.

"Nothing," Shego replied. "So, what's the plan, Doctor D?"

She began to regret asking the question as the blue man's grin grew monstrously wide, and he opened his mouth to begin what would most likely be a long and incomprehensible rant.

* * *

Kim Possible grimaced and rubbed her arm as she walked towards her locker.

"Of all the days to be completely out of anti-itch ointment," she muttered, glancing at the small red spot on said arm before she returned to rubbing that incessant itch, "it just _had_ to be today.

A flash of familiar blond hair drew her thoughts away from the minor annoyance. With a smile making its way onto her face, she pushed through the crowd of students roaming the halls to tap her best friend on the shoulder.

"Hey Ron," she greeted him as he turned around. "How are you holding up?"

"So...much...detention," Ron Stoppable groaned as he collapsed against his locker. "Stupid food fight. Stupid Attitudinator. Stupid Drakken and his stupid plans that never work."

Kim grinned wryly at the boy. "At least Barkin believed you when you told him about the Attitudinator or you'd have _two months_ of detention instead of just a few days."

"Yeah, yeah," Ron complained, "but still, at least the last time I had detention, it was actually my fault! Drakken should've gotten detention this time instead of me!"

Kim briefly imagined Doctor Drakken sitting in the detention classroom, surrounded by Junior, Vinnie, and Big Mike, then had to work hard to hold in her giggles at the sheer absurdity of that mental image.

"Still, it's better than two months," Kim restated once she'd gotten herself under control once more. "It'll be over before you know it."

Ron glanced at her and opened his mouth—probably to voice another complaint—before he stopped and glanced at the arm that Kim had begun to rub once more.

"Bug bite, I think," Kim answered the question before he asked. "Probably picked it up on the way to school yesterday. All the summer insects are having one last hurrah before they disappear for the winter."

"Bet if I was still Zorpox, I could kill all the mosquitos in the world with some crazy doomsday weapon thing," Ron muttered.

"Do you actually miss being evil?" Kim asked warily. "You were kind of...well, you know...evil."

"Nah. I just miss being _good_ at something. Even if it's just being evil."

Kim put her arm around Ron's shoulders and smiled at him. "You're good at being my best friend," she reassured him. "And if you weren't good at anything, I wouldn't bring you along on my missions. We're a team, remember? If you went all evil, then I'd have to stop you."

Ron grinned back at her. "I bet you wouldn't be able to," he told her. "I totally would've ruled the world if Drakken hadn't stopped me...woah, that's not something I ever thought I'd say."

"You never said anything about ruling the world," Kim taunted him. "You only wanted Nacos."

"Pfft," Ron scoffed, trying to glare at her with righteous indignation despite the grin that he couldn't quite hide, "Nacos were only the first step towards world domination!"

The two best friends burst into laughter as they headed towards their first class of the day.

* * *

"Hah, piece of cake," Shego whispered to herself as she slid between two lasers while hiding beneath a security camera. "Even after being robbed twice, he still has barely upgraded his security since the last time I was here."

Shego tried very hard to avoid thinking of the two previous heists. After all, on both of the previous occasions that she had stolen technology from Doctor Cyrus Bortel, she had ended up regretting it.

"First it was those mind-control chips last year," the green thief grumbled under her breath, "then the moodulators a couple weeks ago. Well, I suppose the third time has to be the charm. If _this_ goes wrong too, I'm never stealing from him again, no matter how much Drakken pays me."

For a moment, she wondered if the eccentric inventor was an even more dangerous mad scientist than Doctor Drakken. Shaking her head at her folly, Shego crept past another security camera. On her previous heist, she had opted for the direct approach, blowing a hole through the ceiling in order to swipe the electro-supercharger-thing. Before that, she had opted to be a bit more stealthy, but Drakken had ruined it by waltzing right past her before she could disable the alarms. This time, however, Drakken had specifically requested discretion.

Rather than his usual lack of concern for subtlety, Drakken seemed determined to keep Kim from discovering what his latest scheme was. He hadn't told Shego everything, either, only saying that he had a plan to deal with Kim Possible once and for all, and that the plan hinged on Kim remaining unaware for as long as possible.

Of course, after Shego stole whatever it was she was looking for, it wouldn't be long before Kim found out. But the plan hinged on Kim not knowing until _after_ Shego was gone.

"At least he's finally dealing with her directly," Shego mused, sliding under another laser, "instead of just hoping she won't show up when he's taking over the world..."

Finally, she slipped past one final security camera and found herself in a large storage room filled with filing cabinets. Trying to recall exactly what Drakken had asked for, she moved slowly past the filing cabinets, reading the label on each drawer until she came to the one she wanted.

"Here we go," she muttered as she pulled the drawer open. Within it was a small plastic device shaped vaguely like a gun. She pulled it out and slipped it into her ankle pouch, then closed the drawer and made her way back through the security net, leaving no sign of her presence other than a single missing device.

* * *

"Perfect!" Drakken exclaimed, leaning back from the invention and dropping his tools onto his workbench. He seized the device Shego had stolen and held it high into the air. "Now that I've turned the Neural Scrambler you stole into a Neural Modification Ray, I will _finally_ be able to defeat Kim Possible once and for all! MuahahahahaHAHAHAHAHA!"

Shego lowered her magazine and watched as Drakken descended into paroxysms of maniacal laughter.

"So, what's it do?" she finally asked, curious despite her aversion to Drakken's rambling rants.

"With this device," Drakken explained with a widening grin, "I can modify Kim Possible's memories! I can make her completely forget how to fight! I can convince her that I'm not evil! I can even turn her to _our_ side! With just one pull of the trigger, I can modify her memories however I choose. I could even turn her into a complete drooling moron!"

"Like you?" Shego retorted, unable to resist a crack at her employer.

"Words hurt, Shego," the blue man told her, somehow managing to get the point and yet comically miss it simultaneously. "Doesn't matter. With my Neural Modification Ray, I can not only stop Kim Possible and...er...what's his name...the, uh, buffoon...whatever! The point is, they can't stop us, and once they're out of the way, the rest of the world will be defenseless! This is just a prototype, but once I build a big enough ray and launch it into space, I can convince the _whole world_ that I've always been in charge! No need to take over when everyone already thinks I'm their supreme ruler!"

Shego raised an eyebrow, impressed despite herself. The plan had none of the glaring flaws of a typical Drakken plan (the army of geriatric retirees coming immediately to mind).

_Well, even if it works,_ the thief mused, _at least I get to fight Kimmie one last time._

* * *

"I still can't believe that all you wanted when you had the _whole world_ in your grasp was a lifetime supply of Nacos."

"I am a simple man with simple needs," Ron retorted.

"You got that right," Kim deadpanned as she watched Ron stuff his face with the aforementioned greasy fusion of Mexican foods. Turning to the third occupant of their table, she watched with morbid fascination as Monique stuffed herself with an equally greasy Naco.

"Ooh, Kim!" Monique exclaimed as she finished off her meal just a few seconds behind Ron, "you _have_ to come to Club Banana soon! Fall fashions have _arrived_!"

"Really?"

"Just got the shipment in today," Monique elaborated. "It'll all be on the shelves tomorrow morning! So you _gotta_ come check it out!"

"I'll be there right after school," Kim promised.

"And Ron, Wrestlerama on TV at seven tonight! You there?"

"I am _so_ there!"

As usual, Kim was completely mystified by her friend's interest in both fashion and professional wrestling.

Before she could comment on it, however, a distinctive four-note jingle drew her from her thoughts. Reaching into her backpack, she pulled out her Kimmunicator and watched as Wade appeared on the screen.

"What's the sitch, Wade?"

"You remember Doctor Cyrus Bortel?" the young genius asked her.

"No," Ron deadpanned.

"He's—" Wade started.

"No, I mean, I know who he is, but no," Ron said emphatically. "I've had _enough_ of his crazy inventions! Kim almost _threw me off the pier_ during the whole moodulator thing! I'm _never_ going to help track down one of his stolen inventions ever again!"

* * *

"I can't believe we're going to track down another one of his stolen inventions. Again."

"Ron," Kim admonished as she walked up to the unassuming entrance to what was supposedly a top-secret lab, "I _help_ people, remember? Besides, we both know how dangerous his technology can be. I'd rather it stayed out of the hands of supervillains, or whoever stole whatever we're looking for."

"I'd rather it stayed locked up away from _him_, too," Ron grumbled as Kim knocked on the front door of the lab complex. "Doctor Bortel's one step away from becoming a ma—" He went silent as the door opened to reveal Cyrus Bortel himself, who was wringing his hands and sweating nervously.

"Becoming a what?" he asked curiously.

"M-ma…" Ron stuttered, "mmmmaster inventor!"

"Oh, right," the older man murmured as he spun around and led the two teens into his lab.

"So, what was stolen from you?" Kim asked as they walked through several rooms cluttered with electronic components. "Your message was kind of vague."

"Someone managed to get through all of my new security without triggering a single alarm," the Doctor replied, gesturing to a few well-hidden infrared laser emitters and closed-circuit cameras as they walked. "I didn't even know anything had happened until two hours ago, when I discovered that my new prototype was missing!"

"What was this prototype, exactly?" Kim asked, already compiling a list of villains in her mind who had a technological bent and a penchant for theft. It was a remarkably short list, despite the massive variety of villains she had faced in the past, and Drakken sat right at the top of it.

"It was a Neural Scrambler," the eccentric scientist answered. "Just a diversion that I've been working on in my spare time. It's a device that can, well, change memories. It's relatively harmless, though. The real memories reassert themselves within a few minutes. The mind is incredibly robust."

They entered a room that looked more like a closet than a lab. It was packed with filing cabinets that covered every wall from floor to ceiling. Just one of the drawers was open, and it was predictably empty. No other signs of an intruder were present.

"Would it be possible to modify the Neural Scrambler to make it permanent?" Kim suggested after thoroughly searching the room and coming up with nothing.

The Doctor was sweating even more now. He pulled on his collar and laughed nervously. "Ah, but that would be...what was that phrase..." he trailed off, before suddenly raising a finger, "ah! 'Ferociously unethical,' of course."

"But it _is_ possible," Kim pressed.

"...Yes," the scientist admitted.

Kim added "interested in mind control" to the criteria on her list and was left with just one name that fit. A shared glance with Ron told her that he had come to the same conclusion.

"Drakken. Again."

* * *

In a small jet gliding over the Caribbean, Kim Possible once again grinned at the person who had offered her a lift.

"Thanks for the ride, Doctor Porter," she said while buckling on a parachute.

"Any time, Kim!" Vivian Porter answered while opening the cabin door. "It's the least I can do after you exposed Doctor Finn as a fraud at got me the job at the Space Center. I hope your dad isn't too angry with me for borrowing the prototype hypersonic jet."

"Speaking of which, who's flying the plane?" Kim asked, as she realized that she, Ron, and Vivian were standing in the cabin area of the plane.

"Autopilot," Vivian answered easily as she finally got the door open. "My contribution to the project. Better hurry, your jump point's coming up in a moment."

"I guess we're off then!" Kim shouted over the wind blowing past. Without a second thought, she leaped out, followed a moment later by her screaming sidekick.

Grinning as a feeling of weightlessness overtook her, Kim angled her body towards a speck in the distance, straightening her body so she would slice through the air towards her destination. Ron, for all his screaming and apparent ineptitude, managed to copy the maneuver and keep up with her.

Though he did, as usual, pull his chute as soon as their forward momentum carried them over the small island they were heading towards. Kim decided to give in to her inner adrenaline junkie, and adjusted her positioning to increase wind resistance, slowing her forward velocity while she fell faster and faster towards the ground. She waited to open her chute until she was less than a thousand yards above the ground, laughing in exhilaration as she did.

When she finally landed on the ground, absorbing the remaining momentum with bent knees, she stripped off her parachute and settled in to wait for her sidekick, who was still over a thousand feet up.

"Come on, Ron. Grow up a little," Kim muttered as she watched the slowly-growing speck in the sky, though the affectionate grin on her face belied her words.

* * *

Shego sighed and surreptitiously covered her ears as Drakken continued to rant about his newest invention. Even making sarcastic quips about his plans wasn't nearly entertaining enough to keep her occupied for long, and now that he had begun to repeat the whole rant again and again and _again_...Shego found her anticipation growing. Soon, hopefully _very_ soon, she would have a chance to tangle with her archenemy once more.

Drakken and Ron were superfluous. Drakken's invention would either fail spectacularly or "succeed" in a way that ended with Kim winning anyway. Ron would probably be heavily involved in ruining Drakken's plans. Meanwhile, she and Kimmie would be fighting for their very lives.

She could hardly wait.

And—speak of the devil—Shego spotted a flash of crimson hair. Grinning widely, she leaped straight up so quickly that she appeared to vanish into the rafters. Drakken didn't even notice she was gone as he continued to rant about how the world would bow to his greatness.

Leaping through the rafters with all the grace of a nimble feline, the verdant villainess found herself directly above Kim and Ron. With a Cheshire Cat's wide grin, she ignited her hands and dropped straight down on top of them.

Of course, Kim noticed just in time to push Ron to the side and leap out of the way, just as Shego expected.

"Miss me?" Shego asked with a grin, settling into a combat stance as she faced off against the redhead.

"Not one bit," Kim taunted, though her answering grin told Shego all she needed to know. Kim settled into a matching stance as the two skilled combatants faced off. The world around them seemed to fade away as they stared at each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

For a moment, at least. The world came back into sharp focus just in time for Kim to duck under a bright crimson beam that lanced out of Drakken's newest toy. Frowning at his rotten luck, Drakken fired several more times, missing on each occasion, until he finally stomped his foot in disgust.

"Stop staring her down and hold her still!" he shouted.

"With pleasure," Shego replied as she leaped at the redhead, her glowing hands leading the way.

Kim dodged the first salvo of plasma and countered with a strong kick to Shego's torso, which was deflected just enough to throw Kim off balance. Before her enemy could regain her footing, Shego clawed at her, barely managing to tear the sleeve of Kim's mission outfit as cheerleading skills came to the fore. After flipping away, Kim touched the ground only long enough to push off and throw herself at Shego.

Shego was ready for her, though. She dodged Kim's leading fist, then grabbed her arm and tossed her head-over-heels across the lab, leaping to follow the redhead's arc even as said redhead turned to plant both feet on the wall and shove off, sending her careening straight at Shego once more with a huge grin on her face.

"Having fun now?" Shego asked as she blocked Kim's punch and kicked out at her abdomen but hit only empty air.

"Loads," the redhead hero retorted as she threw a kick that connected with Shego's right shoulder even as the thief was grabbing for her leg, using it as leverage to get in a good hit to Kim's arm. As Kim winced in pain, Shego stepped in and wrapped both arms around her, immobilizing her.

"Now!" Shego shouted as she struggled to keep Kim from moving.

Drakken, who had been leading Ron on a merry chase during the whole fight, spun on his heel and pointed the stolen and modified device at Kim's head. Before he could pull the trigger, though, Ron caught up and kicked it out of the mad scientist's hand. Four pairs of eyes watched as it arced through the air to land right behind the struggling women. Before the others started to move again, Kim managed to struggle free, kicking against Shego to break the woman's hold.

She realized a moment too late that she had made a mistake, as Shego stepped back to regain her balance, crushing the device under her heel.

Predictably, it exploded, throwing Kim one direction and Shego the other. A series of unrelated explosions soon followed, courtesy of Rufus, who had been fiddling with the various buttons and levers throughout Drakken's lair during the fight.

With both women unconscious on the floor following the initial explosion, nobody made it out before the rest of the lair exploded, propelling all of them through a collapsing wall, causing Ron and Drakken to join their fellows in blissful unconsciousness when they landed on the beach.

A Global Justice troop transport helicopter arrived several minutes later. A number of agents and medical personnel stepped onto the beach to find four unconscious bodies, one of whom was being slapped and shaken by a naked mole rat intent on waking him up. When a brief examination showed that they were all relatively uninjured, Drakken and Shego were cuffed and all four of them (plus one naked mole rat, of course) were brought onto the helicopter and airlifted back to Middleton. The two criminals were dropped off in Global Justice holding cells, while Kim, Ron, and Rufus were brought home to rest in their beds after a job well done.

And that was that.

Or so they thought.

* * *

Kim groaned under her breath as she gradually rose from the depths of unconsciousness. Her head was throbbing and her mind seemed far too sluggish. She fought through the mental fog, recognizing the rather familiar feeling of waking up after being knocked out, and tried to remember what had hit her.

"Did anyone get the number of that death ray?" she muttered quietly in a voice that sounded somewhat odd to her. She put it out of her mind though, as she rolled over to the other side of her bed.

Or, at least, she _tried_ to. Unfortunately, there was a wall in her way, and she slammed into it head-first.

Now considerably more awake, she rubbed her forehead as her headache was instantly upgraded from throbbing to pounding. As her mind began to clear, she realized that she was definitely not in her bed. Her bed was fluffy and comfortable, while whatever she was laying on now was decidedly not.

Cracking open her eyes, Kim stared up at a gray ceiling.

_Gray?_

She sat up suddenly, though her pounding head protested vehemently. Her eyes clenched shut until the pain began to subside, then opened once more.

The first thing she saw was a familiar arm clad in green and black.

It only took a moment to realize that it was _her_ arm.

Opening her eyes fully, she looked down at a body with which she was intimately familiar. Despite that familiarity, however, it wasn't _her_ body. Nor was it _her_ green and black jumpsuit covering it (although she still had the one that Drakken had forced her to wear during the mind control incident).

An ordinary person would have been utterly freaked out by this point, but Kim just leaned back against a gray wall that she now recognized as the side of a prison cell, and sighed.

"Not _again_," she complained in a voice that was unmistakably Shego's.


End file.
